spying articles

Consumers, hardware makers and even governments have never been more concerned about spying than they are today. It’s pretty much a given that most of the world’s superpowers have elaborate surveillance programs in place to monitor what we do online…

Edward Snowden has had a profound impact on the way the entire world views online privacy. The whistleblower’s NSA leaks have also cost some of the world’s leading technology brands quite a bit of money as a direct result of…

The past week or so has been a PR nightmare for Samsung. After news spread regarding the company’s questionable privacy policy as it relates to the voice recognition feature on some of its smart television sets, it’s now being reported…

Security researchers at Kaspersky Lab have unearthed a suite of surveillance platforms that can hide within the firmware of hard drives from more than a dozen manufacturers. The attackers, which Kaspersky is calling the Equation Group due to their complex…

A covert NSA operation known as Auroragold has allows the agency to spy on more than 1,200 e-mail accounts associated with major wireless network operators. The intelligence is then used to help the NSA hack into wireless networks or even…

A sophisticated piece of malware known as “Regin” has been spying on government organizations, infrastructure operators, businesses, researchers and private individuals since at least 2008. The backdoor-type Trojan is said to display a degree of technical competence rarely seen and…

The US Senate recently voted against the USA Freedom Act, a bill that would have crippled a key cog in the NSA’s spying capabilities. The bill garnered a vote of 58-42, just two votes shy of passing as outlined in…

Brazil declared intentions to disconnect itself from the US-controlled Internet last year due to privacy concerns and it appears they weren’t kidding. The country is preparing to spend $185 million on a fiber optic cable that’ll stretch roughly 3,500 miles…

NSA leaker Edward Snowden has totally changed how we view privacy as it relates to the Internet. In addition to being more cautious about what we share online, some have taken additional steps such as switching to encrypted e-mail services,…

A number of news outlets (TechSpot included) ran a story yesterday in which security expert Jonathan Zdziarski claims to have found several backdoors in iOS that can be used by law enforcement and government agencies to potentially spy on citizens. The…

During a recent hacker conference, forensic scientist and iPhone jailbreaking expert Jonathan Zdziarski outlined a number of undocumented high-value forensic services running on every iOS device. He also found suspicious design omissions in iOS that make data collection easier according…

Are you a Linux Journal reader or use software such as Tor and Tails Linux? If so, you've probably been flagged as an "extremist" by the NSA. Leaked documents related to the XKeyscore snooping program reveal that the agency is targeting anyone who…

Late last year, Microsoft said they were taking steps to beef up encryption and security practices in light of the NSA's wide-reaching surveillance programs. They've since made good on that promise as Microsoft's webmail and cloud storage services are now a…

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) has quietly posted its inaugural transparency report on Tumblr yesterday, detailing information as it relates to the use of certain national security legal authorities by the NSA for calendar year 2013.

In a move likely stemming from the ongoing dispute between Chinese and American officials regarding spying operations, the Chinese government has put the IBM servers much of its banks and financial institutions use under review.

Canadian broadband management company Sandvine has released its bi-annual Global Internet Phenomena Report. It’s typically used by service providers, regulatory agencies, media outlets, financial analysts and research institutions to gauge all sorts of metrics but as TorrentFreak points out, another…

The camera modules used in today's smartphones are typically pretty small, as you can see from the image above. However if you look to the left, you'll see something even smaller that's set to be the future of spying.
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The now infamous former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden, has spoken out recently regarding President Obama's planned NSA reform proposals. Snowden released a statement via the American Civil Liberties Union, the group currently handling his legal representation, saying that Obama's planned…

The New York Times reports that the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is preparing a legislative proposal that will completely overhaul the National Security Agency's controversial bulk phone data collection program. Under the proposed legislation, the bulk records would…

In what some may consider a case of the pot calling the kettle black, classified documents reveal the National Security Agency managed to hack into the servers of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

The National Security Agency’s spying capabilities seemingly know no bounds. In the latest Edward Snowden-inspired leak, the Washington Post highlights a program called MYSTIC that is able to record 100 percent of all voice calls in a target country and…

Employers, overprotective parents and jealous lovers now have even more smartphone options to choose from. A budding surveillance company by the name of mSpy is offering an array of modern handsets that come pre-loaded with all sorts of NSA-like spyware…